Thanks! They were indeed very happy. Good repeat clients.

I helped with a theatre canvas once ... many years ago. Headmaster was in charge and seemed to know what he was doing. We worked with the canvas laid out on the hall floor, and with various weights round the edge to hold the canvas in place as we painted. He did the skilled stuff and allowed me to do the blocking-in ... mainly sky IIRC.

That's a great subject to bring up. It's not so hard to staple to long boards for the problem of moving around. Staples pull out pretty easy when your done. I often use the squeeze clamps from the hardware store to temporarily attach a canvas to boards as well.

On the subject of the line of sight, I would put the horizon roughly at the height of the actors heads, however high that may be. That will feel most like you are looking out at the actors and background as apposed to upward or downward. I think a little above head height is better than a little below in order to look more natural to the higher distant viewers. I would also use narrow perspective as apposed to a wide angle perspective so that it looks less distorted for the many angles of view. Only one point of view really gets to enjoy a wide angle perspective. To understand narrow angle perspective, it just means really flattening any surface that is more parallel to your line of vision. For example you're familiar with using lots of flat brushstrokes near the horizon on most landscapes. Now if you crop the middle of that landscape out, you have flat brushstrokes all the way down to the base of the frame. That's a narrow angle. You can treat walls and vertical objects the same by making sides of objects thinner and less visible (flattened vertically). I like to add grey-blue-violet anywhere I want distant atmosphere in a landscape as well. I hope that is some help.

@muraljoe Goodness...! Thank you so much, Joe - that was an expansive answer , very thorough . I've used your cloud videos to help me create the sky today and done exactly as you've suggested with the flattening of the clouds as they approach the horizon . Coincidentally and by luck more than design , I've also got the horizon above the height of the performers . There's so much to learn about mural painting and trompe l'oeil...I'm fascinated by the subject . I do find, though , that many books purporting to teach trompe l'oeil techniques are pretty poor . One day, perhaps you'll have a video on theatre backdrop painting ....there's so little around . Thank you again for taking the time to reply and with such supportive information...🙂🙂🙂

im a retired set and lighting designer and have painted many back drops .. some I designed, others as painter or design assistant or teacher. yes, midpoint of the audience is typical for your observation point ... if your canvas is a full drop it can be painted up after its primed and based, but flat on the floor stapled in place, paints all in one go will be the best choice if possible. @@sianscountrylife4925

I think an average might be around 2-3,000.00 USD.